Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center

Intoduction

Roar Amundsen will defend his doctoral thesis: "Hamstring injuries in women's football." Every week, 1 out of 5 players in Toppserien (Norwegian women's football premier league) has an injury/illness that prevents them from fully participating or performing optimally. PhD candidate Roar Amundsen has mapped out all injuries among female football players at the elite level in Norway.

Disputas: Wednesday 14th of February

Place: NiH Auditorium Innsikt

Time - Trial lecture: 10.15 – 11.00: ”Soccer heading - a sub-concussive head impact with potential long-term implications; what is the evidence?"

Time - Thesis Defence: 13.00 – 16-00: "Hamstring injuries in women´s football"

Language: English

Commitee

Associate professor Elin Kolle, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NIH), chairperson

Professor dr. med. Tim Meyer, Saarland University, 1.st opponent

Professor Eamonn Delahunt, University College Dublin, 2nd opponent

Supervisors:

Main supervisor: Roald Bahr, professor at the Department of Sports Medicine, NIH.

Co-supervisor: Merete Møller, associate professor at the Department of Sports Medicine, NIH.

WHAT IS THE PROJECT ABOUT:

In this project, it was documented injuries and illnesses in the Norwegian premier league of women’s football (Toppserien) for the 2020 and 2021 seasons. It was hypothesised that the rapidly increasing level and demands for high-speed running in women’s football had raised the risk of muscle injuries, and therefore, had an extra focus on hamstring injuries in this project.

On average, 22% of players had an injury or illness that prevented them from participating or performing optimally every week. The results confirmed that muscle injuries (such as hamstring strains, quadriceps, and groin injuries) were now the most common type of injury in soccer. Anterior cruciate ligament injuries, concussions, and hamstring injuries were the injuries that led to the most absence among players. It was  specifically focused on hamstring injuries because the majority of research on hamstring injuries has been conducted on men.

Compared to what is reported among male soccer players, it was observed that hamstring injuries in women were more often overuse injuries. Furthermore, while the lateral hamstring muscle is most often injured in men, it was observed that in women the medial hamstring muscle were more often affected. These studies provide valuable information about the most common and severe injuries in women's soccer and, therefore, should be the focus of injury prevention training.